


Date Night

by orphan_account



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 07:18:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2642978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Oncers Trick or Treat event over on Tumblr (Super late, I know. I'm sorry!). This story was written for the lovely kjtgp1, who kindly beta'd this for me. Thank you, dear!</p><p>Oh, the bold parts are text messages (:</p>
            </blockquote>





	Date Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kjtgp1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjtgp1/gifts).



If two years ago someone had told her she'd one day be getting ready for a date with Emma Swan, Snow's daughter, with the help of none other than Red, Snow's best friend, she would have certainly deemed them mad. A year ago she would have entertained the possibility of going out with Emma, but never being friends with Ruby. In hindsight, it was a pretty obvious friendship. They both had lost their first True Loves in traumatic situations, and Regina had, in a way, freed Ruby from her curse. She hadn't believed that, at first. Regina had thought Ruby's free spirit, and her inability to leave the diner or the town, was a whole new curse for the other woman.

Ruby had come to her door after Marian had come to town. She and Snow were the only people aside from Henry who had been allowed into her house those first few days. Emma had tried once, but was barred from going beyond the magical barrier on the mansion's gate, which apparently sent a very clear message, for the blonde hadn't tried again. Ruby came the first time with Snow, and they talked. It was a bit weird at first, but nothing a few nights down at the Rabbit Hole didn't solve. So now here she was, trying outfit after outfit, while the younger brunette sat on her bed, critiquing her looks.

This wasn't Regina and Emma's first date, far from it. The two woman had been seeing each other for almost two months now… But so had Emma and Neal. The three of them had a silent agreement. Both Regina and Neal knew about each other, and neither ever said a word about it. They were civil, every time they had to meet when Neal picked Henry up from her house, or dropped him off, but never had they mentioned Emma. It's not like the blonde had done this in secret, she had been very clear from the start about her lack of interest on a serious relationship with either one of them, at least for now.

"Do you seriously not have anything that doesn't scream 'business'?" Regina startled a bit, abruptly taken away from her thoughts. Ruby let out a long sigh, and Regina turned to look at her, eyes narrowed "Not that there's anything wrong with your clothes," She raised both arms in mock surrender, "But, you know, you're not going to a council meeting. Don't you have, like, a little black dress or something?"

"I'm not sure... " It wasn't that Regina felt insecure with her body, but she thought the black dress she had bought on a whim almost three years ago, not-so-coincidentally right after Emma came to town, was probably not appropriate. In any situation. Ever.

"Let me look, I'm sure I'll be able to find something!"  _That's exactly what I'm afraid will happen._ Despite her fears, Regina stepped aside and waited for Ruby to find the infamous dress… "Oh. My. God."  _Yep, there it is._ "Why didn't I ever see you wear this? Wait. Did you ever wear this…? God, Regina it still has the tag on!  _Shit_ how much did you pay for this thing!?"

"That's quite enough, give it to me."

"You have to wear this." Ruby said, putting a hand on each of Regina's arms.

"This dress is hardly appropriate."

"It's totally appropriate. I thought you wanted to impress her. Isn't this a 'special date'?" Regina blushed. Ruby was probably the only person who could do that.

"Emma said she wanted to talk, she didn't mention anything about a 'special date', that was all your imagination, dear."

Ruby laughed, "Right. And you  _don't_ want to impress her?"

Regina gave an exaggerated sigh, " _Fine._ "

**Neal: Hey Em, are you ready? They let me leave the shelter early today, I was thinking maybe I could pick you up before 6 so we could have more time? ;)**

" _Shit._ " She had forgotten. Of course on the busiest day of the year, when they had to hand out the security plans for Miner's Day, she had a date. And she had forgotten about it. "Shit, shit,  _shit._ "

"Are you alright, kiddo?" David was sitting on his desk, trying to get his half of the paperwork done.

"It's fine, it's just… It's Neal. It's fine." She gave her father a tight smile and sent Neal a quick text:

**Ems: there's a key above the door frame. i'll be late but you can let yourself in.**

It was only one hour later when Neal heard the knock at the door. For a millisecond he sees Regina in a way he's never seen before. She has a warm smile on her face, her eyes are open, he would ever dare say hopeful, and her face is the softest he's ever seen. Scratch that, her whole posture is soft.

That's until it registers in her mind that the person opening the door is not Emma. Definitely not Emma.

Shock and confusion flash through her face, and then it settles into a hard, blank mask. "What are you doing here?"

"What are  _you_ doing here?"

"I do believe I've asked that first, Mr. Cassidy." Her eyes narrow slightly, and Neal can totally see it. He's never been in full confrontational mode with Regina, at least not yet, but one day Emma, a  _very_  drunk Emma, told him all about how fucking hot the mayor looks when she's panting and blushing from anger, paying no mind to anyone's personal space.

"Yes, well, you should probably come in, I can see this isn't going to be easy."

"What was that, Cassidy?"

"Erm- I said, this isn't going to be, hm, a quick, ern, conversation...?"

"Right." Regina comes in, and stays by the door, coat still on, while Neal heads for the kitchen. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Beer?" Regina raises one eyebrow, and Neal chuckles. "Right. No beer then. Maybe something else, wine perhaps?"

"There's scotch on the cabinet over the sink. There should be two tumblers there too."

"You can sit down, you know?"

"What are you doing here, Cassidy? And why isn't Emma here?" The smile of Neal's face fades, and he looks at Regina as if he had broken her favourite vase. "She forgot."

"I'm sure there's some kind of-"

"That still doesn't answer why  _you_  are here."

Neal's face scrunches up while he walks towards Regina, and in that moment he could strangle Emma.  _How on Earth is it fair that_ I  _have to clean her mess!?_ "Yes, well. Apparently she forgot about her dates with both of us." He hands Regina her tumbler of scotch and sits down on the couch.

Regina sighs heavily, puts the scotch down without taking a sip and proceeds to take her coat off to join Neal in the couch.

"So how are we going to plan our revenge? Do you still have that curse lying around?"

" _Excuse me_!?"

"Sorry. Bad joke. Ignore me." They sit there in silence, until Neal can't help but correct himself. "Actually, the revenge thing wasn't necessarily a joke. I don't know about you, but it's not the first time Emma's stood me up."

"I could always make all the bear claws in town go missing..." Regina says with a wicked smile, and Neal laughs. It's not long until they're both laughing.

Regina's been in the apartment for almost two hours now. She's taken off her heels and is sitting with her legs under her, her back resting on the couch's armrest. The couch is just big enough for them, their knees touching in the middle. Neal is facing her, one foot on the floor and the other on the couch, despite Regina's protests.  _Emma deserves a dirty couch anyway, 'Gina._

They might be a little bit drunk. Neal's been telling about the time when he was 17, living in NYC, and had decided to walk across the country to move to LA. He had gotten as far as Jersey City before he changed his mind and decided to try and get the money for a bus ride. He had never gotten to live in LA.

"What was she like, before?" Regina says after Neal finishes his story, and it catches him by surprise. He looks at her with his mouth slightly open, and she feels the need to continue. "Emma, I mean. What was she like when you met for the first time?"

Neal smiles softly, and it's hard not to get caught up in the memories. "She was... She was light. She was free, you know? Thinking about it now, it was probably some kind of defense mechanism, but she was always smiling.

"Did she tell you about how we met?" At Regina's negative head shake, he continues, "I was having a hard time then. I had always lived by stealing, I didn't have any skills and though I had tried, it was hard to get a proper job when you don't have any kind of formal education. The only thing of value I had was the car I has stolen in Ontario - Ontario, Oregon, not Canada - before driving all the way to Portland in the hopes I'd get better chances.

"It was early morning, and I was sleeping in the back seat of the bug when I heard a noise. There was a girl trying to break into my car."

"She stole your car!? That's how you met?" Regina looks like that's the weirdest thing she's ever heard.

"Right," Neal's smiling and it's so obvious how found of the memory he is. "I waited until she drove away to make myself known. To be honest I was still half asleep then." Neal laughs, "I got her to go out with me that night. I took her to a closed amusement park, we had the place all to ourselves."

"That sounds... Surprisingly romantic." Regina chuckles, and thinks that right now she might just understand what Emma sees in him.

"...and there was a clearing in that forest." Regina's telling him about Daniel,  _it's only fair, I've told you about_ my  _first love_ , Neal had said _. "_ We would go there sometimes. But Daniel liked Firefly hill better. He said the place was the closest we could get to the gods."

"There was one day.." Neal's not really paying attention to her stories anymore. The alcohol's mostly worn off by now, but Regina still looks relaxed. She's got the most beautiful smile on, and Neal feels like his heart might just explode if he looks at her long enough. "...it was on one of our lessons that-" Neal reaches out without thinking, pushing himself up and towards her, placing a hand on her cheek. Regina inhales sharply, her mouth hanging slightly open.

"May I kiss you?" It's barely a whisper, but he's so close there's no way Regina could miss it. She licks her lips as if by instinct, and gives a small nod.

The kiss is really soft at first, almost as if they were afraid the other would break. But then Neal's short beard is scratching Regina, and soon enough they're both panting.

"Emma, sweetheart, wake up." David's finished his half of the paperwork, and a little bit of his daughter's too. Emma ended up falling asleep at her desk, and he decided to wake her up when the work had been completed.

"Oh, God." Emma groans, sitting up and trying to stretch her neck. She's sure it will be sore in the morning. "I'm almost done. I'll finish it, you can go home, dad."

David chuckles at Emma's voice, raspy from sleep. "It's already finished, kiddo."

"What? What time it is?" Emma's face is scrunched up in confusion.

"It's almost midnight already."

"Shit." Emma stands up in a flash grabbing her coat, trying, and failing, to put it on quickly. "Shit, shit,  _shit_. Neal's gonna kill me."

"What?" David asks, and turns away to follow Emma out of the door.

"Can you lock up? And thank you for the paperwork, I really gotta run now, sorry."

"Emma, what's-" David tries to ask her, but Emma's already running through the door. "...going on." He finishes quietly, and turns to turn off the lights of the station.

Emma runs down the stairs as fast as she can. It's only when she gets to the parking lot that she realizes she left her keys upstairs.  _No time to go back now._ She turns around and heads home running.

Emma's completely out of breath when she gets to the apartment. The key on the doorframe is visible,  _Neal put it back._ She tries to calm herself down quickly, adjusting her hair, looking at her reflection on the window. She grabs the key from its hiding place and opens the door, preparing herself to a probable fight. It's not like she has any right to say anything, least of all complain about it. This time she screwed up big time.

She opens the door and is left flabbergasted by the sight that greets her. Neal, sitting back on the couch with Regina straddling his lap, the pair kissing passionately, seemingly not even aware of her presence in the room.


End file.
